Preserving the Documents of the Past and Making Them Accessible

Transcription

Preserving the Documents of the Past and Making Them Accessible to the Future!
Volume 42, Number 2 (165) Ready to Renew?
It’s autumn—and that means
it’s almost time to renew your
MAC membership! Keep an
eye out for membership renewal
reminders in your e-mail.
Fall Symposium 2014
Learn all about what happened
at the Fall Symposium, “Oral
History, Archives, and Innovation,” in the January issue of the
MAC Newsletter.
www.midwestarchives.org
October 2014
MAC Education Committee Launches
Speakers Bureau Project
Prompted by the MAC Education Task Force’s 2010 report recommendations,
the Education Committee launched a two-year pilot project in 2013 to explore
the possibility of establishing and coordinating
a MAC “Speakers Bureau.” The bureau would
be made up of MAC members and others from
allied professions and organizations with expertise
on specific subjects who are available to speak in
geographic areas throughout the MAC region.
Once it is fully formed, local groups, archival
regionals, and others could request individual
speakers from the Speakers Bureau directory to
present on-site workshops or training events for
a low cost.
Speakers Bureau presenter
Over the past year, Education Committee mem- Colleen McFarland enlightens
bers have evaluated needs and gaps in training her audience with the finer
throughout the MAC region and are coordinating points of strategic planning.
four workshops over the final year of the pilot. The experience of holding these
workshops will enable the committee to provide detailed recommendations to
(Continued on page 3)
In This Issue…
President’s Page.................... 2
MAC News.............................. 3
News from the
Midwest............................... .11
Archival Resources on
the Web............................... .14
Electronic Currents.............. .16
Preservation Essentials....... .18
Mixed Media........................ .20
Up-and-Comers.................... .24
People and Posts................. 27
Other News.......................... .28
MAC Officers........................ .30
2015 Annual Meeting:
“The Bluegrass Meets the Midwest”
Lexington, Kentucky, May 6–9, 2015
After five years, MAC returns to the Bluegrass State! Nestled in the heart of
Kentucky’s picturesque Bluegrass Region, Lexington, the Horse Capital of
the World, blends history, horse racing,
bourbon, and southern charm. As a
bonus, 2015 marks the 150th anniversary
of the University of Kentucky!
MAC 2015, May 6–9, “The Bluegrass
Meets the Midwest,” will offer lots of
fun! The opening speaker will be the
charismatic Joel Pett, a Pulitzer Prize–
winning editorial cartoonist for the
Lexington Herald-Leader. Pett’s speech,
tentatively titled “What’s So Funny
about Free Speech?,” will engage us in
Keeneland Racetrack, Lexington,
Kentucky, 1936. Caufield & Shook
Collection. ULPA CS 147926,
University of Louisville Archives and
Special Collections.
President’s Page
October 2014
Dear MAC Members,
Summer is flying by! It hardly seems possible that it was the end of April when we met in Kansas City,
and it’s now early August as I write. Archivists from MAC are looking forward to seeing colleagues at
the SAA meeting in the coming week; for many of us, our crew of fall students will return in just about
three weeks. Today, however, our reading room is full of researchers who have traveled from far-flung
places as they can only do in the summer, and we’re still enjoying warm, sunny days.
By the time you read this newsletter it will be October, and usually you’d hear me say that MAC will be
attending its Fall Symposium in a few weeks. The timing for our Symposium is a bit earlier than normal
this year—we are meeting in September! I’m anticipating a terrific program. “Oral History, Archives,
and Innovation” will feature discussions with Dr. Doug Boyd from the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral
History at the University of Kentucky Libraries. There’s a lot of buzz in MAC about this Symposium,
and I expect members to be very pleased with the results.
Members have certainly been pleased with the workshops of the MAC Speakers Bureau, which debuted
this summer. The Education Committee deserves kudos and thanks for successfully hosting the first two
Speakers Bureau workshops: “Moving Images” held in Jefferson City, Missouri, in May, and “Strategic
Planning for Small Archival Programs,” held in Muncie, Indiana, in July. Cochairs Tanya Zanish-Belcher
and Ellen Swain and the Education Committee have done a wonderful job in setting the stage for a
dynamic program that makes professional development topics such as these accessible to archivists in
more targeted individual sessions at smaller venues. See the article about the Speakers Bureau in this
issue of the newsletter and keep an eye out for communication from the Education Committee about
the next opportunities for these valuable sessions.
This fall seems like it will be a productive one for MAC. As Council meets in our traditional fall business meeting, we’ll continue to put ourselves to the task of working on issues important to you, such as
meetings, publications, and the ongoing work of our working groups and committees. In closing, let me
once again invite you to contact me directly if you have concerns that you’d like to bring before MAC
leadership. You can find me at [email protected].
My best wishes to you all,
Amy Cooper Cary
President, Midwest Archives Conference
Raynor Memorial Libraries P.O. Box 3141 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-3141
Telephone (414) 288-7214 Fax (414) 288-7813 Web www.marquette.edu/libraries
2
MAC Newsletter • October 2014
MAC News— Daria Labinsky, Assistant Editor, National Archives at St. Louis
Speakers Bureau
(Continued from page 1)
MAC Council concerning the viability of a long-term
effort. The first two workshops were great successes and
have come in well under budget! Council had committed $4,600 for the two-year project. Both workshops
were offered at no cost to participants and received high
evaluations.
The first Speakers Bureau offering was held on May
30 in Jefferson City, Missouri, hosted by the Missouri
State Archives. Thirty-five archivists attended “Moving
Images: An Introduction for Archivists.” The half-day
workshop, presented by Paul Eisloeffel of the Nebraska
State Historical Society, familiarized attendees with the
science, history, identification, preservation needs, and
care of moving images on film, videotape, and optical
media. The workshop also offered guidelines on assessing a repository’s moving images and how to determine
priorities for preservation reformatting. By the time they
left, a new group of archivists were armed with the basic
knowledge they need to face their moving image holdings.
Next, on July 18 in Muncie, Indiana, 19 archivists attended “Strategic Planning for Small Archival Programs”
presented by Colleen McFarland of the Mennonite Church
USA Archives. Hosted by the Society of Indiana Archivists
at Ball State University’s Bracken Library, this half-day
workshop introduced participants to the purpose and
core elements of a strategic plan. The workshop provided
hands-on time for participants to draft preliminary mission and vision statements, begin a “SWOT” analysis
Workshop attendees soak in quality information.
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and
identify a strategic priority to guide future action in
their repositories. Participants departed energized and
confident in their ability to apply what they had learned,
with examples of strategic plans and a bibliography for
further reading to support their planning work in their
home repositories.
The Education Committee continues to identify topics
and speakers for a resource list of presentations, from
which will come speakers for both the Speakers Bureau
and MAC’s Annual Meetings. It has tentative plans for
future workshops in South Dakota and Kansas. If you
have questions, suggestions, or an interest in hosting a
workshop, please contact cochairs Tanya Zanish-Belcher
([email protected]) or Ellen Swain ([email protected]).
2015 Annual Meeting
a lively discussion of the connections between content
creators and historical context. Pett is well known for
his dynamic, witty presentations that include drawing a
cartoon “live” while he speaks.
For those unfamiliar with the history of our state, Kentucky
derives from an Iroquois name for the hunting ground
they used south of the Ohio River. Originally thought
to translate as “dark and bloody ground” or “the land of
tomorrow,” the meaning of Kentucky is still disputed. It
is currently thought to mean “meadowland.”
In 1775, William McConnell and a group of frontier
explorers were camped at a natural spring when word came
from nearby Fort Boonesborough that the first battle of
the American Revolution had been fought in Lexington,
Massachusetts. In its honor, the group named their site
“Lexington.” By 1820, Lexington, Kentucky, was one of
the largest and wealthiest towns west of the Allegheny
Mountains. So cultured was its lifestyle, Lexington soon
gained the nickname “Athens of the West.”
The opening reception will be held at the Carrick House,
located along downtown Lexington’s historic Third Street
Corridor. With a glass-domed atrium, 40-foot waterfall,
and outdoor patio, the Carrick House will be a perfect
venue for relaxing and mingling. We’ll enjoy delectable
3
MAC NEWS— Continued
Daria Labinsky, Assistant Editor
Kentucky-inspired food in this beautiful historic home—
and make sure you bring your dancing shoes, because we’ll
be square-dancing to a live band!
There’s much more to Lexington than horses and distilleries,
although they are reason enough to visit the heart of the
Bluegrass. The vibrant downtown district boasts numerous museums and cultural heritage sites that document
Lexington’s diverse and storied past. From the hotel, stroll
through the historic campus of Transylvania University
(established in 1780) and Gratz Park, where Lexington’s
original Carnegie public library resides, to Cheapside, a slave
auction and abolitionist speech site near the Old Fayette
County Courthouse. Also within walking distance is the
childhood home of Mary Todd Lincoln and the HuntMorgan House, which offers an extensive collection of Civil
War relics and memorabilia. As part of the conference, you’ll
have the chance to tour Transylvania University Special
Collections and the Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science
Museum, touted as one of the nation’s finest collections of
nineteenth-century scientific artifacts, anatomical models,
and botanical paintings used for instructional purposes.
Hail a pedicab to Ashland, the estate of renowned Kentucky
statesman Henry Clay, to tour the beautifully manicured
gardens and well-preserved mansion. The peony beds
should be nearing their full splendor by early May. Nearby
is the legendary Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, a
thriving entertainment centerpiece for Lexington’s African
American families since 1948 and current home of the
WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour broadcast. Learn more
about Lexington’s historic downtown on one of the many
themed walking tours or a horse-drawn carriage ride. In fact,
one of the Thursday morning tours will focus on African
American history in downtown Lexington, led by historian
Yvonne Giles of the Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum.
But what about the aforementioned horses and bourbon,
you ask. Where to begin?! The Kentucky Horse Park provides a great introduction to our favorite animal. Brush up
on your equine history at the International Museum of the
Horse and swing by the Horses of the World presentation
for a firsthand look at the unique beauty of international
showcase breeds. And don’t forget to trot through the Hall
of Champions to meet the park’s elite racetrack-winning
residents. Take the trolley down the scenic Bluegrass Parkway to Keeneland, Lexington’s acclaimed thoroughbred
racing facility. Drop by the library to see one of the world’s
largest collections of materials on the thoroughbred. Plan4
Square dance, 1951. Mack Hughes negatives. 2006ua052.
University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.
ning to extend your conference trip a few days? Be sure to
schedule a tour of one of the area’s many elegant yet fully
functional horse farms.
To fully appreciate the history and culture of the Bluegrass
you must visit one of the many bourbon distilleries of
central Kentucky. Lexington is home to the Town Branch
Distillery, named for the body of water that currently runs
under the city, and Woodford Reserve and Buffalo Trace
are only a short drive away. A number of craft beer breweries
are also located in Lexington, including Kentucky Ale, West
Sixth Brewing, and Country Boy Brewing. Still thirsty? It’s
only a short drive to the Ale-8-One Bottling Company,
home of the region’s favorite ginger-citrus soft drink (it pairs
quite well with bourbon).
But don’t stop there! The Bluegrass offers so much more—
from hiking the nearby Red River Gorge, to catching a
Lexington Legends baseball game, to indulging in the
finest contemporary southern cuisine. MAC in Lexington
can seamlessly serve as an ideal professional development
experience and a fun-packed family vacation to remember!
Check out www.visitlex.com for additional suggestions and
planning tools. You will be awed by the variety of adventures
Lexington has to offer. And, while you are here, get in on
the action and #SharetheLEX!
The conference hotel, the Hilton Lexington Downtown,
overlooks Triangle Park and Rupp Arena. This landmark
hotel is central to scores of exciting restaurants, shopping,
museums, and entertainment venues and is connected by
a pedway to the Lexington Convention Center. The hotel
has a heated indoor pool and whirlpool, a fitness center,
and a 24-hour business center, among other amenities.
Guests staying at the hotel will receive free wi-fi in their
rooms, and self-parking for overnight guests is complimentary. Meeting rooms are all on one floor to help create
an intimate and easily navigable conference experience.
Organizing data for eloquent presentation!
Getting here is easy! Centrally located at the intersection
of Interstates 75 and 64, Lexington is within a day’s drive
of two-thirds of the nation’s population. For attendees
flying in, Blue Grass Airport (LEX) offers nonstop service
to 15 destinations and service by seven of the nation’s
top airlines, including American Eagle, Delta, United,
and US Air. The Hilton provides shuttle service to and
from the airport. There is also Greyhound Bus service to
Lexington from multiple destinations. The bus station is
located about three miles north of the hotel.
So mark your calendars and start making plans! The
Lexington LAC looks forward to showing you around this
charming and vibrant town. You’ll have opportunities for
professional development through workshops and sessions,
and the chance to explore the history and culture of our
unique city. And remember to bring your dancing shoes!
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them at a prereception event to talk shop,
speed-mentor, and share your must-dos for the
Annual Meeting.
Interested in becoming a PAL? Not sure if you
qualify, but might be interested? Please contact
MAC Pals Coordinator Natalie Morath at
[email protected].
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5
MAC 2014 Archie Motley Memorial Scholarship for Minority Students
Recipients Say Thanks to MAC
Lorena Ramírez-López
Truth be told, I am still new to the
field of archiving. I only recently
graduated with a bachelor’s degree
in cinema studies and Spanish.
While I do not (yet) have the
three to five years of experience
at a professional and/or nonprofit
organization, I have worked on
several projects and volunteered at
many organizations and festivals.
As an undergraduate, I wrote an honors thesis on Paraguayan cinema and sound theory. Right now I am studying
for my master’s degree in moving image archiving and
preservation at New York University. This program focuses
on the theory and practice of the archiving and preservation
not only of film, but also of video, digital, and other formats
that artists and researchers consider “moving images.”
The majority of my work and research has been, and
will continue to be, focused on the preservation of film
and video archives in Latin America. To complement my
work and research on Latin America archives, I applied to
MIAP’s (NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program) audiovisual preservation exchange (APEX)
program, and I was one of the few students selected to go to
Montevideo, Uruguay. I am now interning at the Museum
of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The differences in
cultures, workflows, and languages have been both challenging and inspiring.
My culture and identity are Latina. In the United States, I
am considered a minority; but the possibilities and potential
of the archives in South America reflect the possibilities and
potential I possess. My every endeavor focuses on completing my ultimate goal: forming an archives in Paraguay and
preserving Paraguayan cinema and television. Until I can
establish this, these experiences and exchanges with other
archives in libraries, museums, and cinematecas are only
possible because of programs like MIAP that encourage
research, and organizations like MAC that provide scholarships to make these moments achievable.
By Lorena Ramírez-López
Moving Image Archiving and Preservation,
New York University
My interest in archives began
in an undergraduate art history course. I was tasked to
interpret a series of paintings by
a prominent African American
artist who inspired me and with
whom I could draw a personal
connection. The artist I chose
was Archibald Motley, the father
Raquel Flores-Clemons
of the award’s namesake, Archie
Motley. I was always intrigued by how Motley’s sophisticated visual depictions of African Americans in 1930s
Chicago confronted and remedied oppressor-imposed,
one-dimensional, and degenerative representations of
African American culture. Archibald Motley’s work resonated with me, a native of Chicago’s West Side, because I
have experienced the negative consequences of continued
misrepresentation. Engaging with this work reaffirmed my
belief that artistic expression is a true form of meaningful
information in itself with the power to rectify and broaden
our perceptions. Archie Motley continued the spirit of his
father’s work by documenting the historical contributions
of those who lived on the fringe of American society and
by giving underrepresented populations a voice in the
archive. My class exercise greatly influenced my desire
to pursue graduate studies, to develop the skills and
learn of the resources needed to provide access to artistic
documentation.
As I prepare to complete final coursework for the MSLIS
at the University of Illinois, I am eager to engage with
modes of professional development so that I am prepared
to be an effective steward of a collection. The two benefits
of receiving the Archie Motley Scholarship Award, which
were attending the Midwest Archives Conference Annual
Meeting and completing Special Collections coursework,
supported that effort. The MAC Annual Meeting exposed
me to the great work that both seasoned and future archivists are doing to help position the profession to remain
relevant in the digital age and beyond the boundaries of
their repositories. I was excited to attend panel sessions
that discussed using social media to promote collections,
documenting the musical subcultures of local communities, and supporting Common Core Standards through
the use of archival materials. Attending these sessions
influenced the work I completed for a special collections
6
2014 Bowen Scholarship Recipient Gives Her Appreciation
By Andria Hoy, Kent State University
My path to a career in archives and archival management has not been a straight line, nor did it solidify until
recently. I never envisioned that my long-practiced skills of
home file organizing and my love of history and accurate
facts would combine into a new career.
My interest began in earnest while I was working as an
intern for the Cleveland Orchestra Archives. Originally,
I was interning in different departments throughout the
building, with my main interest being arts management.
However, when I started working in the archives, a whole
world was opened to me that I had never experienced before.
Bringing the past into focus and making it relevant for
the current day suddenly became very satisfying. I was
surprised and immensely intrigued by a field I knew nothing about. My interest grew not only in preserving cultural
heritage but also in finding ways to share that heritage
with others. The cultural history of Cleveland is amazing,
and many institutions in town have superb archives, all of
which hold wonderful treasures about our past. Moving
into the future, I see archives and archivists as being an
important part of the equation: you must know where
you came from to help determine where you want to go.
Cultivating a culture of acceptance
and understanding about the profession is important to me. Many
people do not know the significance
that archives play in their daily
lives. Many corporate and cultural
institutions utilize archives regularly,
and yet it often seems to me it is a
hidden profession. Throughout my
Andria Hoy
time in school, I have been driven
to enlighten many people about the importance of archival
work, and I will continue to do so, as I believe it is important
for the profession.
I was extremely honored to be awarded the Louisa Bowen
Memorial Scholarship for Graduate Students in Archival
Administration. I am so excited to be a part of the MAC
community as I start the end of my degree. The funds from
the award assisted with the last portion of coursework I am
taking in the fall and enabled me to attend the 2014 Society
of Ohio Archivists conference. I sincerely hope to attend next
year’s MAC Annual Meeting and meet fellow archivists in the
region. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the MAC
family and for furthering my education with your generosity.
Emeritus Scholarship Winner of 2014 Enjoys MAC’s Annual Meeting
By Julie Hatfield, Archives Assistant, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
My first MAC Annual Meeting
was a great success! Since graduating from the UW–Milwaukee
School of Information Studies
in May 2013, I am becoming
more involved in the profession,
which included attending my first
archival conference. The MAC
Annual Meeting went above and
Julie Hatfield
beyond my expectations. I was
able to meet, network with, and find new midwestern
archivists to follow on Twitter; meet up with former classmates and other UW–Milwaukee alumni and archivists;
and learn how other archives are using social media and
digitization for outreach to users. Many of the sessions I
attended concerning social media, digital preservation, and
digital humanities will help with my current position at the
UW–Eau Claire Special Collections and Archives, where I
am developing a digital collections portal of the university’s
history and promoting it through Facebook and Twitter.
A highlight for me was experiencing a new city with astounding
musical and historical attractions. I enjoyed exploring Union
Station, the American Jazz and Negro Leagues Museums, the
restaurant tour to La Grünauer (where I ate schnitzel for the
first time), and touring the Marr Sound Archives and LaBudde
Special Collections/Linda Hall Library. I take advantage of
touring archival repositories when I can and learning how
they run their operations. I was jealous of Chuck Haddix’s
staggering jazz record collection and the variety and number
of scientific books at the Linda Hall Library.
Thank you again for awarding me the MAC Emeritus
Scholarship for first-time meeting attendees. I thought
the Midwest was well represented with archivists who take
pride in the archival profession. I will definitely be attending the MAC Annual Meeting again in the near future!
7
Thanks to Our AI Volunteers—And
We Need More!
Nominees Sought for MAC
Presidents’ Award
By John Fleckner, National Museum of American History
The MAC Presidents’ Award was established in 1986 as
a means for MAC to recognize significant contributions
to the archival profession by individuals, institutions, and
organizations not directly involved in archival work but
knowledgeable about its purpose and value. A committee
comprising the three most recent past presidents of MAC
chooses recipients based on nominations submitted by committees in each of the 13 states in the MAC region. Each
state committee may put forward only one nomination per
year. As many as three awards may be presented each year.
Recipients are invited to attend the Members’ Meeting held
at MAC’s Annual Meeting to receive their awards. You can’t say “thanks” too often, especially to the volunteers who are doing much—or in the case of our journal,
Archival Issues, virtually all—of the work. So, “thank you”
authors who submit and often revise (and revise again) and
board members who review, revise, edit, and advise. With
the help of these many volunteers, we will have published
two issues of AI by the end of 2014 and moved well along
on the next.
And with that “thank-you” comes another heartfelt
message: please keep on volunteering! We need a steady
stream of authors whose thoughts and experiences will
inform and inspire us. We also need two additional
Editorial Board members to work with those authors and
editors to continue the tradition of AI’s contributions to
the profession, which began in 1976. If you have ideas for
submissions, or publishing or editing experience, and an
interest in the professional literature, please be in touch
at [email protected].
And remember—Archival Issues, like this newsletter,
is available in electronic form. Going green is easy!
All you need to do is let us know that you want the electronic version when you renew your MAC membership.
Then visit the AI web page at midwestarchives.com and
download the link. And if you have access to JSTOR’s
Arts and Sciences II database, you can read past issues
from 1976 to 2010.
To nominate someone, please complete the nomination
form on the MAC website and address it to the appropriate state chair no later than January 15, 2015. Full contact
information for the state chairs can be found on the
MAC website, under “MAC Presidents’ Award,” www
.midwestarchives.org/presidents-award, along with a list of
the award’s past recipients. For additional information about
the award and guidelines, please contact Dennis Meissner
at [email protected].
Archie Motley Scholarships
certification at Illinois, which was partially supported
by funds of the scholarship. I was able to research and
evaluate how the Common Core Standards Initiative
(CCSI) could not only support the use of primary sources
to facilitate learning in school-aged children, but how
archives’ support of CCSI could activate the growth of
underrepresented voices in collections as well as support
community outreach efforts.
Archie Motley helped lay the foundation for diversifying
the archive and validating the historical contribution of
those who lived on the fringe of American society. My
8
experiences as a woman of color and as a product of an
urban neighborhood have always influenced my work as a
scholar to capture the voices and histories of marginalized
communities. I hope to build upon that foundation by
documenting the urban narratives of and scholarship on
hip-hop culture. Needless to say, being the recipient of the
Archie Motley Scholarship is truly a full-circle moment
for me, and there are no words to describe how honored
I am that the Midwest Archives Conference chose me to
receive such an award.
By Raquel Flores-Clemons,
MSLIS Program, University of Illinois
Nominate Someone Deserving for the Distinguished Service Award
MAC’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes the
otherwise unsung contributions of our MAC friends
and colleagues. Please take a moment to think of all the
people you know who have been quietly contributing
their time and talents to MAC: the people who offer to
serve on committees and are ready to fill in as workshop
leaders or session participants at the last minute, or those
who will happily work at the registration table when they
learn that someone has just canceled, or those who can
whip up a quick article for the newsletter when you need
to fill that last quarter-page. Now take a few minutes to
put into words why MAC should recognize at least one of
those people, and submit your description on the MAC
Distinguished Service Award nomination form posted
on the MAC website, www.midwestarchives.org/assets/
documents/dsaform.pdf.
The Distinguished Service Award was created to recognize
individuals who give generously of their time and talent
with little or no formal recognition and likely have never
served in an elected MAC position. Since its inception,
MAC has given these awards to Marion Matters (2000),
Mona Wei (2002), and Janet Olson (2010). Matters
served on numerous committees, panels, and program
sessions, but she is best remembered as the creator and
lead performer in the four critically acclaimed versions of
Raiders of the Lost Archives—marvelously funny, silly, and
satirical revues of the archival profession. Wei served on
every Chicago Local Arrangements Committee, stuffed
registration packets for more than 20 years, helped at
registration desks, led restaurant tours, and did anything
else asked of her to make the meetings a success. Olson’s
contributions are many and include ensuring the success
of MAC’s and SAA’s Chicago meetings, revitalizing the
Chicago Area Archivists, and mentoring new archivists.
Please consider nominating someone for his or her dedication to MAC. The deadline for nominations is January
31, 2015. For guidelines, visit midwestarc.memberclicks.
net/distinguished-service-award. For more information,
contact Dennis Meissner at [email protected].
9
Vice President’s Column:
MAC Meetings and Symposia Update
By David McCartney, University of Iowa
NPR commentator Susan Stamberg has written many
delightful essays over the years. One of my favorites—
which I will paraphrase badly here—concerns the marked
seasonal change that fall brings, something especially true
for those of us who work at academic institutions. The
arrival of autumn signals the start of a new school year
that in many ways surpasses New Year’s Day as a time that
brings renewal, rejuvenation, and perhaps even a bit of
melancholy. For many, fall—not the middle of winter—is
the time of year that marks new beginnings.
The MAC Fall Symposium is one way to make a new
beginning. By the time you read this, Fall Symposium
2014, held in mid-September at the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign campus, will be history, but attendees
no doubt learned much about the challenges and rewards
of initiating and managing oral history collections. Doug
Boyd, PhD, director of the Louis B. Nunn Center for
Oral History at the University of Kentucky, offered a
comprehensive overview of the many issues and emerging
challenges concerning oral history interviews. A reception
at the Spurlock Museum on campus was a fine opportunity
to meet and greet. Many thanks to Bethany Anderson,
Anke Voss, and the entire organizing committee for their
hard work.
Looking ahead to 2015 and beyond, MAC offers more
opportunities for professional development in spring and
fall. Here’s what’s on tap.
Annual Meeting, “The Bluegrass Meets the
Midwest,” Lexington, Kentucky, May 6–9, 2015
By the time you read this, the deadline for session proposals will have passed, but the 2015 Annual Meeting in
the Bluegrass State promises to deliver a diverse range of
topics and formats that will, we hope, encourage more
interactivity among attendees. While the traditional
“one to many” presentation format is fine, we’re looking
forward to utilizing other ways to share knowledge, such
as lightning rounds, speed dating, and even debates.
The Program Committee, cochaired by Lisa Sjoberg and
Stephanie Bricking, is striving to line up sessions that cover
a variety of relevant topics. As long as we’re in Lexington,
we’ll have to enjoy some great Kentucky hospitality too:
tours of the Buffalo Trace Distillery, a local horse farm,
and historical downtown Lexington are planned, thanks to
10
the Local Arrangements Committee, cochaired by Deirdre Scaggs
and Heather Fox. Watch the MAC website for registration
details in the coming months!
Fall Symposium, “Hard Skills for Managing
Digital Collections in Archives,” date and
location TBA, 2015
Wondering how to sort through the challenges of dealing with born-digital materials in your repository? This
practical symposium, with hands-on experience, will help
you make sense out of the ever-changing environment of
electronic records. Bertram Lyons, archivist and digital
assets manager of the American Folklife Center at the
Library of Congress and senior consultant for AVPreserve,
will lead this two-day seminar. Topics will include basic
digital preservation workflows and concepts, spreadsheets
for data management, and using open source (read: free)
tools to help you manage datasets. At press time, the
location for the Fall 2015 Symposium hadn’t yet been
determined, but watch this space or the website for an
announcement.
Annual Meeting, 2016, date and location TBA
As of this writing, we’re very close to selecting our host city
for the 2016 Annual Meeting; an announcement about
the location and dates will be made soon!
We are always on the lookout for ideas for Fall Symposium
topics and places to meet. How about your hometown?
Please e-mail me at [email protected].
CALL FOR EMERITUS MEMBER
NOMINATIONS
Each year, the Membership Committee solicits
nominations from the MAC membership for
candidates to the status of Emeritus Member.
The nominee must be retired from archival work
and have been a MAC member for a minimum
of 10, not necessarily consecutive, years. For more
information, please visit the Emeritus Membership Award page on the MAC website, www
.midwestarchives.org/emeritus-award.
News from the Midwest—Troy Eller English, Wayne State University, and
Alison Stankrauff, Indiana University South Bend, Assistant Editors
Please submit News from the Midwest items for Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Ohio to Troy Eller
English at [email protected], and items for Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, and
Wisconsin to Alison Stankrauff at [email protected]. Submissions must be 150 words or less.
ILLINOIS
Brethren Historical Library
and Archives
Brethren Historical Library and
Archives in Elgin has recently opened
the papers of Dale W. Brown, a professor at Bethany Theological Seminary
in Oak Brook, Illinois, from 1962 to
1993. The collection of 24 linear feet
includes correspondence, sermons,
and lectures of this important Church
of the Brethren scholar, pastor, and
peace activist. The Brown Papers
document his peace activism during
the Vietnam War era and into the
early twenty-first century and include
correspondence with prominent
Brethren and ecumenical figures.
Visit www.brethren.org/bhla for more
information.
Illinois Wesleyan University
Il linois Wesleya n Universit y’s
Archives and Special Collections
launched a collaborative online
collection for the David and Sarah
Davis Family Correspondence in
March. Supreme Court Justice David
Davis (1815–1886) and his wife wrote
several thousand letters to friends,
family, acquaintances, and one another, providing insights into daily life
and historic events over much of the
nineteenth century. Patricia Kasbohm
Schley of the David Davis Mansion
State Historic Site in Bloomington
created transcriptions of original
letters held by at least eight archives.
Illinois Wesleyan University archivist Meg Miner advised on the site
structure and metadata and trained
student assistants to post files in a
hosted instance of CONTENTdm.
Consortium of Academic and Re-
search Libraries in Illinois (CARLI)
staff provides ongoing software support. Transcriptions of approximately
three hundred letters are available to
date, with an expected total of over
fifteen hundred at the end of this
collaborative effort. See tinyurl.com/
Davis-Family-Correspondence.
INDIANA
An online digital library containing
nearly 250 unpublished, informally
published, and popular works by
theologian John Howard Yoder, a
prominent twentieth-century Mennonite theologian, is now available.
A collaborative project undertaken
by Goshen College’s Mennonite
Historical Library (Goshen, IN), the
Mennonite Church USA Archives
(Goshen, IN), and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (Elkhart,
IN), the digital library is accessible
through the Private Academic Library
Network of Indiana (PALNI) and
Indiana Memory websites.
The project was funded by a grant of
$12,023 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the
provisions of the Library Services and
Technology Act administered by the
Indiana State Library. The Shalom
Foundation awarded an additional
$2,000 grant to continue building
this digital library.
IOWA
University of Iowa
The Department of Special Collections and University Archives,
University of Iowa Libraries, has been
awarded a grant of $300,000 from
the National Endowment for the
Humanities to preserve and digitally
reformat the Keith/Albee Collection,
named for Benjamin Franklin Keith
and Edward Franklin Albee, partners
in a vaudeville talent booking agency
based in Providence, Rhode Island,
during the late 1800s and early
1900s. Over 50 linear feet of documents, including correspondence,
newspaper clippings, and playbills
will be preserved and made accessible
online to researchers when the project
is completed in 2017. Read more at
collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?MSC0356.
KENTUCKY
University of Louisville
Archives and Special
Collections
The University of Louisville Archives
and Special Collections has added
two new digital collections. Home
for Us All: Fair Housing in Louisville-Jefferson County Oral History
Collection (digital.library.louisville.
edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/
housing) includes audio interviews
and transcripts from developers, planners, housing advocates, social justice
activists, and educators discussing the
history of housing in Louisville from
1960 to 2011 and how it has formed
the city today.
The Louisville Underground Music
Archives (LUMA) recently digitized
the complete set of the Official Burt
the Cat Fanclub Newsletter zine
(digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/
landingpage/collection/luma). The
fanzine, a staple of the mid-nineties
music scene in Louisville, covered live
shows, reviewed records, and offered
photos and commentary on all things
11
NEWS FROM THE MIDWEST— Continued
Troy Eller English and Alison Stankrauff, Assistant Editors
punk rock in the city from 1995 to
2002. Launched in 2013, LUMA
documents the history and culture of
Louisville’s rock/punk/indie/hardcore
music scene from the 1970s through
today. In addition to the physical
copies of Burt, LUMA houses show
recordings, set lists, photographs,
posters, flyers, t-shirts, and more.
MICHIGAN
Cranbrook Educational
Community
The Cranbrook Archives has acquired
two important collections. The
Robert Rohm Papers documents the
internationally recognized sculptor’s
life, thought processes, and development as an artist from his time at
Cranbrook until his death in 2013.
The Noel and Isabel Buckner Papers
includes architectural drawings and
photographs of their home in Michigan. Designed by Robert Harter
Snyder, then head of the Architecture
Department at the Academy of Art,
the Buckner residence was a prime
example of midcentury modern
architecture.
A new exhibition, Ephemera: The
Stories that Letterhead Tell, will open
Pictured in this 1957 image, Noel
and Isabel Buckner’s house in West
Bloomfield, Michigan, was a classic
example of midcentury modern
architecture. Designed by Robert
Harter Snyder, the house was recently
demolished. Image courtesy Cranbrook
Archives.
12
in early October. As part of Archives
Awareness Month, a three-part lecture
series will accompany this exhibition. For more information, visit
cranbrook.ent.sirsi.net/client/cranar.
file workers, immigrants, pioneering
professional women, and minority
urban dwellers. Find details at www
.reuther.wayne.edu.
Detroit Sound Conservancy
The Detroit Sound Conservancy
(DSC) was founded in 2012 to
preserve Detroit’s musical legacy. Last
summer, the DSC executed a successful Kickstarter fund-raising campaign
to start an oral history archives for
Detroit music online and in the city
based on preexisting recordings from
Detroit’s music journalists. This May,
a hundred people attended the DSC’s
“Conserving Sounds; Telling Stories”
conference. Twenty-three presented
their research, and six music journalists spoke about the past, present, and
future of Detroit music journalism.
This summer, the DSC worked to
secure vault space for audio recordings of Detroit music and funding
for a full-time executive director. See
detroitsoundconservancy.org.
MINNESOTA
Wayne State University
This summer, the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission awarded the Walter P. Reuther
Library of Labor and Urban Affairs
a grant totaling $109,152 to improve
the description and facilitate the
discovery and promotion of 1,660
oral histories of individuals directly
involved in the labor, civil rights,
and social justice movements, among
other important historical developments. Donated to the Reuther or
conducted by staff members over
the last 40 years, these stories bring
a new perspective on the American
experience through the lives and work
of such prominent national figures as
Grace Lee Boggs and Cesar Chavez,
organizations like the NAACP and
the UAW, and unknown rank-and-
Red Wing Shoe Company
Museum
The Red Wing Shoe Company
Museum, overseen by the Corporate
Archives, planned and hosted the
first annual Red Wing Museum
Crawl, May 31–June 1, 2014. The
Museum Crawl highlighted the
newly acquired Phil Revoir Collection of photography, ephemera,
and memorabilia, which documents
the Red Wing area, the Hiawatha
Valley of the Mississippi River, and
the surrounding communities. A
private donor purchased the materials
from professional photographer and
restoration specialist Phil Revoir for
distribution among the six historic
museums of Red Wing. The Museum
Crawl consisted of an exhibit at each
historical institution, a passport to
collect stamps to enter a drawing,
and a sale of surplus and duplicate
items from the collection. Hundreds
of visitors, including Revoir and his
family, made the tour of Red Wing
history museums over the weekend.
NEBRASKA
Nebraska State Historical
Society
The Nebraska State Historical Society’s moving image collections
received a grant from the National
Film Preservation Foundation to
reformat badly shrunken home movie
reels from the St. Augustine Mission
School, circa 1936–1939. The Catholic school served the Winnebago tribe
of Nebraska. Footage shows daily life
NEWS FROM THE MIDWEST— Continued
Troy Eller English and Alison Stankrauff, Assistant Editors
at the mission, including classroom,
play, and festival scenes. Treatment of
the films will include repair, cleaning,
and reprinting on polyester film stock.
OHIO
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
Medical Center
Founded in 1883, the Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital Medical Center
embarked on a one-year project to
inventory its collection of historic materials, which are housed throughout
the hospital. The Mitchell-Nelson
History Library and Museum houses
the largest portion of Cincinnati
Children’s informal archives, including the papers of A. Graeme Mitchell
and J. Victor Greenbaum, the records
of the Cooperative Society and
the Thrift Store, historical patient
records, oral history interviews and
other recordings, pathology slides,
photographs, medical equipment,
and artwork. Other departments
hold administrative records, baptismal registers, marriage registers,
and histories of nurses and patient
care workers. This history has been
displayed in exhibit cases and timeline
panels throughout the hospital. It
is hoped that this inventory project
will provide administrators with the
direction and impetus to maintain
the institution’s archives in the future.
Denison University
The William Howard Doane Library
at Denison University has been
awarded an Ohio 5 Andrew W.
Mellon Digital Scholarship: Projects
and Pedagogy Grant. Working in
partnership with the Denison Museum, the Center for Burma Studies
at Northern Illinois University, the
American Baptist Historical Society,
and Axis Maps, Denison Libraries
will build a digital, cartographic narrative of American Baptist Missionary
activity throughout Burma in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Digitizing and mapping personal letters, diaries, journals, official meeting
minutes, photographs, and artwork
will allow for a spatial, textual, and
visual analysis of both evangelical
missionary engagement with Burma
and the country’s transition under
British colonial rule. Visit the blog
at missionaryburma.wordpress.com.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Center for Western Studies of
Augustana College
The Center for Western Studies
(CWS) of Augustana College in
Sioux Falls has embarked on a major
redesign of its “permanent” historical
exhibit spaces. The $225,000 project
is intended to expand upon the
Northern Plains history and culture
themes presented to visitors to the
center’s Fantle Building while also
emphasizing the vast research materials available in the CWS archives. The
overall concept of the new exhibits is
“voices of the past,” referring to the
voices that “speak” to us through
Plains Indian and immigrant artifacts, as well as through the letters
and photographs that provide context
for understanding these objects.
Highlights include sections on the
continuation of immigrant folk art
practices and important regional
authors O. E. Rölvaag, Frederick
Manfred, and Herbert Krause. The
center is working with Split Rock
Studios, a nationally ranked exhibit
design firm based in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, on the project. The new
exhibits are scheduled to open in the
summer of 2015.
WISCONSIN
Marquette University
The Department of Special Collections and University Archives has
acquired the records of the Faye
McBeath Foundation along with a
grant to fund processing of the collection. The foundation has provided
grants to nonprofit organizations in
Wisconsin that work for the welfare
of the community, particularly in
support of children, the elderly, and
health education. Newspaper heiress
Faye McBeath set up the Milwaukeebased foundation in 1964 to operate
for 50 years, and its resources were
exhausted in 2014. Processing of
the records will be completed by the
end of 2014. Dr. Tom Jablonsky of
Marquette’s History Department has
received a grant from the foundation
to research and write a history of the
organization.
University of Wisconsin–
Milwaukee
The archives recently launched Milwaukee Polonia, a digital collection
of nearly 32,000 photographs of
Milwaukee’s south side when the
area was primarily Polish American.
The collection also includes historic
maps and entries on places and things
shown in the photos. It is online at
www.uwm.edu/mkepolonia.
13
Archival Resources on the Web—Eric Willey, Assistant Editor,
Illinois State University, Normal
Contact Eric Willey at [email protected] if you would like to guest author a column or have a good idea to share.
Digital Archives: Civil Rights Movements in the United States
By Antonia E. Rath, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
One of the most significant themes in American history is
the struggle many groups face to receive equal treatment
under US law. It should not come as a surprise then that
archives, libraries, and other institutions make a concerted
effort to collect and preserve materials documenting these
civil rights movements in America. There is also a growing
trend among institutions to make their collections more
accessible to the public through digitization. Digitized
materials allow researchers to gain access to primary
sources from the convenience of their own computers.
When beginning to research a topic, it is useful to have
an idea of the scale and scope of relevant digital archives
on the Internet. The following is a brief overview of some
significant digital archives on civil rights movements in
America. This discussion will home in on digital archives
regarding the African American, American Indian,
Japanese American, and Chicano and Chicana civil rights
movements.
African American Civil Rights Movement
Type the phrase “civil rights digital collection” into an
online search engine, and the Civil Rights Digital
Library (CRDL), crdl.usg.edu, appears at the top of the
results. The CRDL is an extensive website created as part
of GALILEO, a digital initiative of the Board of Regents
of Georgia’s University System. Users accessing this online
portal can link to civil rights materials held by approximately 160 different contributing institutions, including
libraries, archives, museums, and public broadcasters from
all across the country. In addition, the CRDL contains
news materials from WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany,
GA), television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media
Archives and Peabody Awards Collection located at the
University of Georgia Libraries. Researchers can locate
primary materials using the advanced search function or
browsing by event, place, person, topic, educator resource,
media type, or contributing institution or collection.
The primary sources that can be accessed through CRDL
come from 261 different collections. One of these collections is the March on Milwaukee: Civil Rights Project
(collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/
march) created by the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Libraries. March on Milwaukee provides access to primary
14
sources and educational materials from the University of
Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society. This prime example of a digital collection
dedicated to local history highlights the ways local history
often reflects larger national trends. March on Milwaukee
contains the papers of several individuals involved in the
civil rights movement in Milwaukee, unedited news film
archives from WTMJ-TV (a television station located in
Milwaukee), photographs, and oral history interviews.
Rather than include all of the contents of the physical
collection, those involved in the digitization process hand
selected the most relevant and significant materials for
the online collection. The March on Milwaukee project
has received several awards, including the 2011 Award of
Merit granted by the American Association of State and
Local History.
About 80 miles west of the University of Wisconsin–
Milwaukee stands another rich source of civil rights
materials. The Wisconsin Historical Society, located in
Madison, Wisconsin, is home to one of the largest civil
rights collections in the country. To commemorate the
fiftieth anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer,
the Wisconsin Historical Society has created the Freedom
Summer Digital Collection (www.wisconsinhistory.org/
Content.aspx?dsNav=N:1474). This collection includes
over thirty thousand documents digitized from more
than a hundred manuscript collections housed in the
Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. These documents
include the personal papers of movement leaders including
Amzie Moore and Howard Zinn, diaries and letters from
northern college students who volunteered in the South
during the summer of 1964, official records of civil rights
organizations, and countless other primary materials
from the Mississippi Freedom Summer. Like many of the
other digital collections, the Freedom Summer Digital
Collection also includes educational materials for teachers
and students, including a Freedom Summer PowerPoint
presentation and a 353-page sourcebook guide to Freedom
Summer documents.
The American Indian Civil Rights Movement
With over a million manuscript pages, 2,000 maps,
11,000 photographs, 500 atlases, and 3,500 drawings
and paintings, the Edward E. Ayer Collection at the
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES ON THE WEB— Continued
Eric Willey, Assistant Editor
Newberry Library in Chicago is one of the largest collections of American Indian primary sources in the world.
American Indian Histories and Cultures Collection
(AIHC, www.aihc.amdigital.co.uk) is the digital archive
created from some of the primary source materials found
in the Ayer Collection. Using the AIHC, a researcher has
access to four centuries of American Indian documents.
The AIHC provides a large amount of material covering
the American Indian civil rights movement; however,
unlike the other digital collections discussed thus far, the
AIHC is not automatically free to access. Students can gain
free access to this digital collection if the university they
attend has purchased it. Teachers, librarians, and other
faculty of both public and private universities, colleges,
and other academic institutions can request a four-week
free trial of AIHC.
Another relevant American Indian civil rights movement
digital collection is entitled American Indian Movement
and Native American Radicalism. This collection
includes files kept by the FBI on the American Indian
movement from 1968 to 1979 and primary materials
documenting the Wounded Knee standoff, which took
place in 1973. Like the AIHC, this collection can only be
accessed if a researcher has access to a university’s library
that has purchased a subscription to the database.
While not solely devoted to the American Indian civil
rights movement, certain academic institutions, including
the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School
of Law, have digital resources that are certainly worth
noting. The university’s Thurgood Marshall Law Library
contains relevant resources, including the Historical
Publications of the United States Commission on Civil
Rights, which house several significant primary sources
such as The American Indian Civil Rights Handbook (www
.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr11033
.pdf) and the Enforcement of the Indian Civil Rights Act:
Hearing Held in Washington, D.C., January 28, 1988
(www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/
cr18in23z.pdf).
Japanese American Civil Rights Movement
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project (www
.densho.org/densho.asp) is dedicated to preserving the
legacy of the 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated
during World War II. According to the site, one goal of this
remarkable project is to “educate, preserve, collaborate and
inspire action for equity.” Currently, the Densho Digital
Archive, one component of the larger Densho Project,
contains primary sources that include 796 interviews,
715 narrators, 1,597 hours of video, and 12,228 documents, newspapers, and photographs. As with many of
the other civil rights digital archives previously discussed,
the Densho Project is routinely being updated, and more
primary sources are being added to the collection. Users
must register to access the contents of the archive, but
fortunately the registration process is both easy and free.
In addition to the rich digital archive, the Densho Project
contains many other educational materials, including
“Sites of Shame” detailing the Japanese American detention facilities and the “Densho Encyclopedia.”
Chicano and Chicana Civil Rights Movement
In 2006, Herman Baca, a Chicano rights activist who
was greatly involved in Chicano civil rights grassroots
organizing, gave his papers to the University of California
San Diego Library. The Herman Baca Papers, housed in
UC San Diego’s Mandeville Special Collections Library,
extend from 1964 to 2006 and document over 40 years of
Chicano history in San Diego. A substantial percentage
of these papers has been digitized by the UC San Diego
Library. These digital materials can be accessed using
the UC San Diego Library website, the Online Archive
of California (OAC), or Calisphere, “the University of
California’s free public gateway to a world of primary
sources.” Within the digital archive are 38,000 pages of
documents, 3,643 images (tinyurl.com/UCSD-Baca),
and audio interviews of Herman Baca and other Chicano
activists (tinyurl.com/Chicano-interviews).
The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, based
at the University of Washington, has also created an extensive digital collection entitled the Chicano/a Movement
in Washington State History Project (depts.washington.
edu/civilr/mecha_intro.htm). This collection, containing
materials relating to both Chicano and Chicana history,
focuses on the role both groups played in Washington
State from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. Included in this
digital collection are video oral histories, photos from
five different collections, documents, month-by-month
newspaper coverage extending from 1968 to 1979, and
educational materials for teachers and students.
Many American archives, libraries, and other academic
institutions are home to rich civil rights movement primary sources. Whether you are an academic scholar, a
student, or an individual interested in your heritage, digital
archives give you direct, easy, and often free access to these
exceptional primary sources.
15
Electronic Currents—Joanne Kaczmarek, Assistant Editor, University of Illinois
Contact Joanne Kaczmarek at [email protected] if you would like to guest author an Electronic Currents column or share a good idea.
PALS and Islandora: Building Bridges to a Brighter Digital Future
By Alex Kent, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System
PALS Background
PALS (Project for Automated Library Systems), “Your
Library Solutions Partner,” is a program of the Minnesota
State Colleges and Universities System that has been
providing library services for over 35 years beginning in
1979. Services are also provided on a contract basis to
private college and university libraries, state government
libraries, public libraries, school libraries, and special
libraries. Our organization currently operates and supports
the Aleph automated library system from Ex Libris for a
consortium of more than 60 libraries. PALS also provides
services based on open source software including CUFTS
serials management software, Evergreen library software,
the VuFind discovery interface, and, most recently, the
Islandora digital asset management system.
About Islandora
Based on best practice open source components, Islandora
is a robust digital asset management system originally
developed by the University of Prince Edward Island’s
Robertson Library. Islandora’s core components are Solr,
Fedora, and Drupal. Solr is used for fast indexing and
searching, Fedora is the repository management system,
and Drupal is the user interface. The name Islandora derives from combining the names “Fedora” and “University
of Prince Edward Island.”
Islandora can be used by institutions wanting to host a
digital repository for scholarly works like master’s theses
and dissertations and also student publications. It also
works well for specialized collections at university archives
that contain materials like documents, photographs, audio,
and video. The Islandora services by PALS include hosting content, planning for and assisting in the creation of
metadata, creating customized ingest forms, and training
and support.
Islandora uses what are called Solution Packs to support
different formats. Solution Packs are sets of Drupal
modules that enable content display of various materials
and allow automatic processes to occur when objects are
added to a repository. For example, the Video Solution
Pack has Drupal modules that enable streaming video.
JW Player is used as the display tool and comes with the
Video Solution Pack. There are also a Newspaper Solution
Pack, a PDF Solution Pack, a Large Image Solution Pack,
16
a Basic Image Solution Pack, a Book Solution Pack, a
Compound Object Solution Pack, and more.
Solution Packs also include default ingest forms. Ingest
forms are like data entry forms. They are used to describe
objects and can be customized to local needs. The forms
are built with an XML form builder that allows the user
to set required metadata elements, set default text for
common data (like copyright statements), create dropdown menus for controlled vocabulary, and create custom
data entry instructions. For example, for Minnesota State
University, Mankato, we built a form for photographs to
follow Minnesota Digital Library metadata guidelines. On
the form, we added special instructions to help students
conform to the standard. In several instances, we used default text and drop-down menus for controlled vocabulary.
Another strength of Islandora is the automatic creation
of technical metadata. This occurs within each Solution
Pack when objects are added to the repository with the
Islandora FITS module and Islandora PREMIS module.
First Steps
In 2011, we created our first repository, called the PALS
Story, using the Islandora Basic Image Solution Pack used
for JPEG images. Another Solution Pack, the Large Image
Solution Pack, can be used for TIFF images. We sent staff
member Linda Richter to an Islandora Camp to become
more acquainted with the software and community so that
PALS could provide digital asset management support
using Islandora. To most effectively test and demonstrate
the software, we created a test repository to store meeting
minutes, agendas, reports, and similar documents from
various events held by the MnPALS Consortium throughout the year. The beta repository uses the Islandora PDF
Solution Pack. The PDF Solution Pack enables the easy
upload of PDF files to the repository and includes display
tools that allow access to PDF files in the repository the
same way they are accessed on the web or on a computer. It
comes with a default ingest form, and automatic processes
occur (which include OCR) when a PDF is added.
Conducting Beta Tests
We offered members of our consortium a “beta test”
implementation of Islandora so we could learn more about
Islandora and our partners would have the opportunity to
ELECTRONIC CURRENTS— Continued
Joanne Kaczmarek, Assistant Editor
put digital content online at no cost, except for staff time.
Two sites agreed to participate: Southwest Minnesota State
University (SMSU) and the Minneapolis College of Art
and Design (MCAD).
SMSU digitized its alumni newsletter, Focus. SMSU
used its own scanning equipment to create PDF files of
Focus from 1980 to 2008. Adobe Acrobat Pro XI was
used to convert the PDF files to TIFFs, because the Book
Solution Pack requires them. One of our main support
roles for SMSU was helping to choose which metadata
standard to use, which elements would be required, and
how to handle copyright. We settled on using MODS
and copyrightMD (developed by the California Digital
Library in 2009). SMSU also made the decision to keep
descriptive metadata to a minimum.
Another major support function we provided was in the
creation of ingest (data entry) forms used to describe digital
objects. An XML form builder is used to create the form.
Any metadata standard can be used with these forms,
and they are highly customizable. It is possible to have
unique data entry instructions on each form, controlled
vocabulary in drop-down menus, and default text for
common data such as copyright statements. Any of our
Islandora sites can now use the form we created for SMSU.
MCAD tried several different formats to see how things
worked in Islandora. MCAD’s collections contain many
different materials, from course catalogs to photographs
to artists’ books. We provided similar support to MCAD
as we had to SMSU. Instead of digitizing a single, large
project, however, MCAD did just a few items from different collections. We also built an ingest form for theses
and tested some videos.
SMSU and MCAD enjoyed the beta projects and appreciated the chance to try Islandora. For us, the beta projects
were very fruitful, as they allowed us to determine that
Islandora was indeed ready to put into production as a
potential open source digital asset management system.
A New Partnership
In 2014, PALS and Minnesota State University, Mankato
(MSU), began a new partnership: the implementation of
Islandora as the new digital asset management system
for MSU’s photographs, newspapers, and (eventually)
oral histories. This opportunity came as a direct result of
the beta period and our connections with the Islandora
community. We are approaching this project much as we
did the beta projects. Our support for MSU has focused
on helping map metadata, researching standards and
copyright as needed, building custom forms, testing,
and communicating with the community. MSU wants to
export objects to the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL).
So we built the form for its photographs following the
MDL guidelines for metadata and taking advantage
of controlled vocabulary drop downs, default text, and
other functionality to make the forms easy for staff and
students to use.
Challenges
We have run into some challenges while working with
the software. During testing for MSU’s photographs,
we realized quickly that our original strategy to upload
them through the Islandora web interface (Drupal) was
not going to work efficiently due to a size limit of 2 GBs,
or 40 photographs, for the amount of data that could be
sent over HTTP. For migrating around seven thousand
photographs, we needed a new strategy and will now be
importing the photographs directly into Fedora after
modifying our migration scripts.
One other challenge was realizing that compressed TIFF
images do not load properly and that we need them
in uncompressed formats. Other challenges included
metadata mapping and making sure the mapping works
correctly in the ingest forms. These challenges have an
upside, though. Whenever we encounter a problem and
fix it, we become that much better at using the software.
Next Steps
We are currently migrating MSU’s photographs from
ContentDM to Islandora and will follow with uploading
its newspapers. Southwest Minnesota State University
will also load newspapers as its next project. In addition
to working with MSU and SMSU, we have conducted
several demonstrations for interested sites. From our
perspective, it appears that many libraries and universities
are beginning to look seriously at digital asset management
systems. For PALS, it has become a priority to provide
Islandora as a repository solution to interested parties.
Our partnerships with MSU and SMSU show that open
source software can provide a viable solution for the needs
of digital repositories.
For more information related to the Islandora services
provided by PALS, go to the Islandora section of the
PALS website, www.mnpals.org/products/islandora. To
access PALS public Islandora repositories, see islandora
.mnpals.net.
17
Preservation Essentials—Sara Holmes, Assistant Editor, NARA
Contact Sara Holmes at [email protected] if you would like to guest author a Preservation Essentials
column or share a good idea.
Deodorizing Large Format Architectural Drawings Using a
Pumice-based Household Deodorant
By Ross Griffiths, Illinois State University
A recent transfer of musty, smelly architectural drawings to
the Jo-Ann Rayfield University Archives at Milner Library,
Illinois State University, provided archives personnel with
an opportunity to review techniques for deodorizing paper
and to test out a relatively new deodorant product.
The Problem of Odorous Materials
Common causes for odors in library or archives materials
include exposure to fire or tobacco smoke or long-term
storage in a musty, damp environment. Even when materials are stored tightly packed in boxes or on shelves, the
mat of cellulose fiber that forms most kinds of paper may
absorb and hold odors for months or years after exposure.
While odor itself isn’t destructive, bad smells may be
evidence of fungus growth or other harmful contamination, and odors may migrate to adjacent materials in a
storage environment or permeate the air throughout the
facility. Also, patrons and personnel may find odorous
materials intolerable to work with, compromising efforts
to process and provide physical access. Some commercial
vendors offer preservationally sound deodorizing services,
but the costs of these may be high, so institutions with
limited resources may benefit from deodorizing materials
in-house.
Preservation and conservation literature recommends two
basic methods for in-house deodorizing: using airflow
or sealing items into a chamber containing a deodorant
product. To use airflow, items must be arranged loosely on
a surface or hung on a line, and books must be propped
open to expose pages. A fan then blows a gentle stream of
These odor-absorbing mineral pebbles are sold as “Gonzo Odor
Eliminator.”
18
air across the materials until the odor is removed. This is
a simple technique and requires only minimal equipment
but may also require a great deal of space. The airflow technique also poses the risk of spreading odor or undetected
fungus spores throughout the treatment area. Chamber
deodorizing requires commercially available plastic storage
or garbage containers, or the use of plastic sheeting to
create a tent in which to enclose odorous materials along
with an odor-absorbing deodorant. Acceptable deodorants
Oversized drawings are placed on pallets and tented with
plastic. The odor-absorbent minerals are underneath the pallet.
range from a corncob material marketed by vendors as
“Book Deodorant” to more widely available products such
as unscented kitty litter with zeolites, non–self-igniting
charcoal briquettes, or baking soda. These items vary in
their effectiveness at absorbing odors, and some may stain
or cause abrasions to paper and cannot come into direct
contact with items being deodorized.
The Odorous Collection at Illinois State
For more than 15 years, this collection of architectural
materials was stored in an unventilated, uninsulated,
steel shipping container located in an outdoor parking
lot. Exposure to Central Illinois’s extreme temperature
fluctuations resulted in cycles of condensation that formed
inside the container and then dripped onto (and into)
many of the steel cabinets in which the materials were
packed. Moisture also saturated the container’s wooden
floor, causing the formation of mildew and mold, the odor
of which completely penetrated every paper item stored
inside. In addition to the overpowering stench, these items
also posed a variety of other preservation challenges. The
PRESERVATION ESSENTIALS— Continued
Sara Holmes, Assistant Editor
volume of materials was quite large and contained various
formats, including original drawings and reproductions
on paper, Mylar, and linen, as well as bound reports and
file folders containing loose documents. The presence of
blueprints required the use of nonbuffered folders as well
as extra protection against excessive light exposure during
processing. Many items were also large, with most prints
exceeding 36 inches in length. Finally, most large items
had been tightly rolled for years and required flattening
under weights before being placed in the archives’ flat
file drawers.
Deodorizing Method and Results
Personnel first removed all items showing visible fungus
and sealed them into bags for commercial treatment. The
remaining items were then packed and sent to the archives,
which soon filled with a musty odor that lingered for weeks.
The processing plan called for all items to be vacuumed
front and back with a HEPA-filtered vacuum to remove any
fungus spores, then flattened under weights, and, finally,
placed into large folders and stored in flat files.
Since airflow deodorizing would have required a great deal
of space and risked further spreading odor through the
archives facility, personnel selected the chamber deodorizing
method. The deodorant product selected was a household
deodorant called “Gonzo Odor Eliminator.” This pumicebased product’s
description states
that it is odorless
and inert. At $10
for 32 ou nc e s,
t his product is
less expensive
than many of the
specialty products
offered by commercial vendors.
The product arrived in a mesh
bag and consisted
of grayish-white
Odor-absorbent pebbles are placed at the pebbles and a small
bottom of flat file drawers. A clean cotton amount of f iner
grit.
sheet is placed over them.
To test whether deodorizing is more effective before or after
processing, two separate deodorizing stations were set up. In
the processing area, a large warehouse pallet was placed on
the floor upon which loose and rolled items were stacked.
A bag of deodorant was
placed beneath the pallet, and then the entire
pallet was tented with
plastic sheeting. In the
stacks area, one drawer
in a large, empty flat
file cabinet was lined
with plastic sheeting
on which pieces of the
deodorant were scattered. This was covered
with a clean, cotton
sheet to prevent contact
with materials, and then The musty drawing is placed in a
flattened, foldered items folder above the odor absorber in
this fully filled flat file drawer.
were placed on top.
After four weeks of deodorizing, the materials in both stations dramatically improved. Items in the pallet chamber
showed the most improvement and were nearly 100 percent
odorless, while the more tightly packed items in the flat file
drawer were mostly odorless with only a moderate musty
smell detectable. Since deodorizing loose items on a tented
pallet was the most effective method, a second chamber will
be set up in the processing area to accommodate additional
materials. The deodorant product will remain in the flat
file drawers, with each drawer labeled to alert users to its
presence.
Risks and Benefits
The biggest risk with the Gonzo material seems to be its
abrasiveness. As a pumice-based material, merely handling it
leaves the skin on the hands feeling smooth and “polished.”
This product would certainly abrade nearly any materials it
came into direct contact with and would be quite destructive
to film, glass negatives, magnetic tape, or any machines or
computers. To prevent potentially destructive migration of
this material, the archives is strictly limiting its use to two
small areas of the archives space. The manufacturer also
recommends “recharging” the material after a few months
by placing it outdoors for several hours. Overall, the biggest
advantage of this product, other than its reasonable cost,
seems to be its powerful ability to absorb odor which, in
the opinion of one staff member, surpasses that of equal
amounts of kitty litter or charcoal bricks. Obviously, for
this product to be recommended for wider use in libraries
or archives, more testing should be carried out to evaluate
both its safety and its effectiveness when compared against
other products on the market.
19
Mixed Media: Working with Audio and Visual Materials—
Heather Fox, Assistant Editor, University of Louisville
Contact HeatherFox at [email protected] if you would like to guest author a Mixed Media column or share a good idea.
The Cost of Inaction: A New Model for Physical Audiovisual Media Holdings
By Chris Lacinak and Bertram Lyons, AVPreserve
Special thanks to Michael Casey of Indiana University for his many contributions to the evolving
thoughts behind this work as well as some of the content of this article.
Many organizations hold physical audiovisual legacy media
as assets in their collections. The day is fast approaching
when it will be impossible or financially unfeasible to
reproduce the content stored on these media—most experts
agree on an estimate of 10 to 15 years, or 2024 to 2029.
This is a universal conundrum that poses a serious threat
to the future value derived from content stored on physical
audiovisual legacy media. This conundrum is not specific
to academic institutions. It manifests in organizations of
all types and sizes, including government institutions,
corporations, nonprofits, museums, media companies, and
more. If collecting organizations do not act now to digitize
their audiovisual collections—to at least save the option to
make appraisal decisions in the future—these assets will be
lost to degradation and obsolescence.
For two years, AVPreserve (www.avpreserve.com) has
been building and testing a tool that has been released
freely to the public to show raw numbers and visualizations
demonstrating the costs of inaction. COI: The Cost of
Inaction Calculator (coi.avpreserve.com) is an open and
free tool that helps organizations analyze the implications
of choosing various levels of response with regard to
digitizing legacy collections of audiovisual materials. COI
Figure 1: Collection parameters for entry
20
is a counterperspective to the concept of “ROI,” or return
on investment, often raised with ill-effect when decision
makers analyze digitization and preservation projects. COI
recognizes past and present investment in collections to add
a data point to ROI to help effectively articulate what may
be lost in the way of access, intelligence, and finances based
on various scenarios.
The Cost of Inaction Calculator
After years of working with organizations to help make the
case for digitization, it has become clear that incorporating
the COI model and analyses into the decision-making
process around digitization of legacy physical audiovisual
media helps organizations understand the implications
and make well-informed decisions. Providing objective
financial metrics and quantifying the loss of media and
content help make the case for taking more immediate action while also helping to avoid a paralyzing all-or-nothing
mindset by enabling insights into the choices available.
To date, organizations have had no way to quantify the
financial and intellectual cost of inaction to supplement
traditional arguments and bridge the gaps between
caretakers or archivists and executives or administrators.
MIXED MEDIA: WORKING WITH AUDIO AND VISUAL MATERIALS— Continued
Heather Fox, Assistant Editor
The Cost of Inaction Calculator enables organizations to
analyze and report on the implications of various scenarios
representing different levels of action. The calculator
prompts users to enter the following parameters, also
shown in Figure 1:
• Last year of magnetic media
• Number of objects in collection
• Collection’s audio and video percentage
• Investment to date for media
• Annual cost per media item moving forward
• Digitization cost per item
• Year digitization will start
• Annual digitization budget
• Storage service (dictates annual storage cost)
• Annual decrease in cost of storage
• Annual increase in cost of digitization
The help menu offers information on how to interpret
and adjust these parameters accordingly, as well as the
assumptions behind them.
Analysis report and provides results based on the collection
details entered by the user as follows:
• Year
• Media
• Content saved
• Excess items digitized
• Investment made
• Content lost
• Investment lost
• Investment saved
• Digitization expense
• Storage expense
• Digitization + storage expense
• Investment saved per $1 of expense
• Quality of selection
The data reported show the cumulative progression of
implications over time as seen in Figures 2 and 3.
Reporting is provided in two sections, both in charts
as well as tabular data. The first is called the Collection
Figure 2: Collection Analysis charts
21
Figure 3: Collection Analysis tabular data
The second section is called the Start Implications report,
and it answers four primary questions:
If I start digitizing in year x, how much will I need
to spend per year to digitize all items that have
not been permanently lost already?
If I start digitizing in year x, how much more
money will I spend than if I start digitizing in
yearly?
If I start digitizing in year x, how much more
investment will I lose than if I start digitizing
in year y?
If I start digitizing in year x, how many more
items will I lose than if I start digitizing in year y?
This report provides results based on a subset of the
pertinent collection details provided by the user as follows:
• Year digitization started
• Annual digitization budget required
• Total spent by 2028
• Investment lost
• Spent + lost by 2028
• Spent + lost difference
• Content lost
• % more spent + lost
• % more content lost
22
Figures 4 and 5 demonstrate the Start Implications
reporting.
The COI Calculator allows saving of multiple scenarios
to perform comparative analysis and to come to a better
understanding of the implications of different decisions.
It also allows exporting the charts and tabular data as well
as sharing links to scenarios. For instance, to view and
explore the Anon University scenarios, see the following
links:
100% scenario: coi.avpreserve.com/
viewcollection/MTMzM0Y1MzQwMzk0
viewcollection/MTMxM0Y1MzQwMzk0
viewcollection/MTMyM0Y1MzQwMzk0
$650k scenario: coi.avpreserve.com/
viewcollection/MTMwM0Y1MzQwMzk0
Conclusion
The Cost of Inaction has been a missing link in the discussion and analysis surrounding the funding of audiovisual
digitization and preservation efforts. Recognizing and
articulating this concept help bridge a gap between caretakers and administrators and offer an effective financial
metric that is a meaningful addition to historic arguments
based on cultural and intellectual significance. Adding
this data point—COI—to ROI provides a 360-degree
perspective, looking both at past investment and the
return on savings of that investment with future expense,
while recognizing that the window of possible return is
limited based on the obsolescence and degradation of
audiovisual media. There is a cost of inaction, and every
organization should come to understand that cost in the
formation of a digitization and preservation strategy to
help it make well-informed decisions. Use the Cost of
Inaction Calculator to help identify what the implications
are for your organization at coi.avpreserve.com.
Figure 4: Start Implications charts
Figure 5: Start Implications tabular data
23
Up-and-Comers: News for Student Archivists—Justin Seidler,
Assistant Editor
Please submit Up-and-Comers items to Justin Seidler at [email protected].
This edition of the MAC Newsletter Up-and-Comers column spotlights the work of Adrienne Evans, the first-place
winner of the Student Poster Competition at the 2014 Annual Meeting.
Action! Cooperation! Independence! Sustaining Citizen-led
Archives in the Midwest
By Adrienne Evans, School of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Purpose
Citizen-led archives exist in many forms—some are small
historical societies tasked with documenting a locality;
others are community archives that seek to preserve the
history of a specific social or ethnic group. These efforts
vary in size, sophistication, and prerogative, but they are
often managed and staffed by nonprofessionals. This
should not detract from the value of these organizations.
Citizen-led archives help diversify the historic record; they
may preserve aspects of history that institutional archives
have neither the space nor the collection scope to save.
Furthermore, they are evidence that individuals outside
of the cultural heritage profession are not only interested
in history, but are eager to actively preserve and facilitate
access to it.
These organizations may face many challenges. They often
lack financial resources. Volunteers usually do not possess
archival skill sets. Plus, without a paid professional at the
helm, citizen-led archives are vulnerable to organizational
instability in the event of leadership or staff turnover.
However, there are ways to mitigate these challenges.
One option is the intervention of professional archivists,
who could contribute to citizen-led archives as educators,
mentors, and advocates. To be the most effective, however,
we must understand the nature of the challenges such
organizations face, how their practices compare to professional standards, and the ethical and practical implications
of professional intervention. To explore these issues as well
as promote productive relationships between professional
archivists and citizen-led archives, I sought to assess the
sustainability of citizen-led archives in the Midwest.
Methodology
First, I developed broad criteria for selecting projects
and organizations to participate in the study: they had
to self-identify as an archives, be based in the Midwest,
and lack a paid professional archivist on staff. In drafting
selection criteria, I felt particularly compelled to focus on
the Midwest for a number of reasons. Much of the professional literature related to citizen-led archives focuses on
organizations in large cities on the East and West Coasts. I
24
thought that a study may address the gap in the literature
on midwestern organizations, which are typically located
in less populated areas and have fewer resources than
their coastal counterparts. Furthermore, I was curious to
see how these types of archival organizations fare in less
metropolitan areas.
To identify potential survey participants, I searched
online and asked professional archivists as well as fellow
students for suggestions. I eventually made contact with
the Midwest Punk Archive (an online project); the Queer
Zine Archive Project (located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin);
the Deforest Area Historical Society (located in Deforest,
Wisconsin); the Hmong Archives (located in St. Paul,
Minnesota), and the Center for Railroad Photography and
Art (located in Madison, Wisconsin). Due to the small
sample size, I did not anticipate that the study would
provide an overall picture of the state of citizen-led archives
in the Midwest, but I did hope to gain some insight into
common issues among these groups.
I interviewed a representative from each archives. When
possible, I tried to meet with participants face-to-face, but
due to distance and scheduling conflicts, some interactions
took place online. A set of questions designed to assess
both the sustainability of the organization itself as well
as materials under its care guided our conversations. I
based many of my questions on the Wisconsin Historical
Records Advisory Board’s (WHRAB) “Self-Assessment
Survey for Wisconsin Historical Records Repositories.”
This document was once used as part of WHRAB’s
Wisconsin Archives Mentoring Service, which sought to
provide professional assistance to local historical societies
throughout the state. My interview questions covered topics such as arrangement and description practices, outreach
and community engagement, appraisal and acquisition,
the preservation of both physical and digital collections,
and professional relationships with like institutions.
Once I had interviewed each archives, I sought a way to
compare participants’ responses with the profession’s best
practices. I developed sustainability criteria in nine areas:
UP-AND-COMERS— Continued
Justin Seidler, Assistant Editor
governance, skills/experience, human resources, collaboration/networking, dynamism, preservation, archival practices, funding, and outreach. These criteria were largely
based upon the Society of American Archivists’ Guidelines
for Evaluation of Archival Programs 1 and Bruce Dearstyne’s
Managing Historical Records Programs.2 Finally, I quantified the criteria, creating a 9-point scale to rate archives
from least to most sustainable. Study participants could
receive one point in each of the nine evaluation areas if
they met all of the criteria in that particular area. Halfpoints were assigned if archives met some but not all of
the criteria in a particular area.
Findings
With scores ranging from 4.5 to 8.5, none of the study’s
participants met all of the criteria on the 9-point sustainability scale. In many ways, these results were predictable;
issues common among cultural heritage institutions
compromised the sustainability of the participant archives.
Participants’ lack of reliable funding, formal education or
training, and sufficient human resources were the main
areas where they lost points. A few participants also lacked
the organizational structure to ensure that the archives
would continue if founders or key volunteers could no
longer be involved. Storage conditions varied widely at
each of the five citizen-led archives, ranging from boxes
stored in garages and basements to shared space within
an environmentally controlled institutional repository.
Similarly, the five study participants exhibited varying
levels of collection accessibility. For instance, few catalog
their collections, and none make catalog records or finding
aids available online. However, a few of them do digitize
and publish collections and accompanying Dublin Core–
based metadata on their websites. All five organizations
reported having significant backlogs or expressed a feeling
of being behind with processing materials. Interestingly,
the participants do have strongly developed acquisition
criteria; all of the archives save one have a formal collection
development policy. Generally, when judged by this study’s
criteria, archival organizations that are legally recognized
nonprofits and that have close working relationships with
institutional archives or information professionals are most
likely to be sustainable.
One interesting discovery that I made during this
study is that, in the absence of institutional resources,
participants have developed several strategies to assist
25
UP-AND-COMERS— Continued
Justin Seidler, Assistant Editor
with sustainability. Many confer and
collaborate with institutional archives
or information professionals. Some
also partner with community groups
or educational institutions to reach
out to potential users. Most also
participate in supportive networks of
like organizations that provide each
other with knowledge and advice.
Finally, most engage the public in
myriad ways, utilizing various social
media platforms, publications, public
talks, and exhibitions.
Considerations
Study participants fell short of the
study’s sustainability criteria; however, I am unconvinced that all of
these shortcomings are necessarily
the consequences of participants’ lack
of professional archivists. Many
institutional archives also suffer from
similar issues and would struggle to
pass this study’s sustainability criteria.
For instance, like citizen-led archives,
many institutional archives struggle
with funding and human resources.
Furthermore, since initially conducting this study, I’ve come to question
the suitability of existing criteria
to adequately evaluate citizen-led
organizations. Many citizen archivists have goals and value structures
that differ from traditional archival
programs. For instance, a few study
participants reported that they value
access over preservation and dispense
with preservation practices that make
it more difficult for users to engage
collections. Also, some do not plan for
the long-term sustainability of their
organizations because they intend to
eventually donate their materials to
traditional archives. I think if I were
to continue the study, I would create
stricter selection criteria, pursuing
participants whose long-term goals are
closer to those of traditional archives.
26
Despite these considerations, I do
think that this study broadly indicates
several issues with which citizen-led
archives could use some assistance.
Many professional archivists are
already involved in this type of
work. State historical societies as well
as State Historical Records Advisory Boards (SHRABs) often provide
citizen-led archival organizations
with educational resources as well as
supportive networks. In addition, programs like the Wisconsin’s Archives
Mentoring Service or Montana’s
Traveling Student Archivist Program
are great models for facilitating more
intensive archival instruction for organizations staffed by nonprofessionals.
In addition, blogs run by professional
archives, such as Start an Archives!,
which features interviews with activist archivists and grassroots projects,
have the potential to both educate
and inspire citizen-led efforts. So
many resources that could potentially
benefit citizen-led archivists already
exist; perhaps the next step is simply
to make sure that they find them.
Notes
1. Society of American Archivists,
Guidelines for Evaluation of Archival Programs, accessed August
29, 2014, www2.archivists.org/
groups/standards-committee/
guidelines-for-evaluation-ofarchival-institutions.
2. Bruce W. Dearstyne, Managing
Historical Records Programs: A
Guide for Historical Agencies
(Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local
History, 2000).
EDITORIAL BOARD
Editor
Paul Eisloeffel
Assistant Editors
Daria Labinsky
MAC News
Troy Eller English and
Alison Stankrauff
News from the Midwest
Heather Fox
Mixed Media
Eric Willey
Archival Resources on the Web
Sara Holmes
Preservation Essentials
Joanne Kaczmarek
Electronic Currents
Justin Seidler
Up-and-Comers
Alexis Braun Marks
People and Posts
New Members
People and Posts—Alexis Braun Marks, Assistant Editor, Eastern Michigan University
The MAC Membership Committee invites members to share positions, appointments, and honors in the
People and Posts column. Please send items to Alexis Braun Marks, [email protected].
Shannon Erb has joined the Country
Music Hall of Fame and Museum in
Nashville, Tennessee, as the moving
image digitization and metadata
specialist. This position is part of a
12-month National Endowment for
the Humanities grant that involves
digitizing one-inch videos, cataloging, and assisting with creating the
museum’s first-ever moving image
digital collection.
Thomas A. Lamb III is now serving
as college archivist and head of Special
Collections and Archives at Carleton
College in Northfield, Minnesota.
He was previously the cataloging
and metadata librarian and associate
archivist.
Eric Willey has joined Milner Library
at Illinois State University, Normal,
Illinois, as a special formats cataloger
after serving as an associate curator
at the Filson Historical Society in
Louisville, Kentucky.
NEW MEMBERS
ILLINOIS
Hanna Ahn
Northeastern Illinois University
Chicago
Mary Aylmer
Decatur Public Library
Monticello
Erin Glasco
Chicago
Daniel Harper
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Urbana
Dennis Sears
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago
INDIANA
Rebekah Myers
Herron Art Library, IUPUI
Indianapolis
Fr. Timothy Sweeney
St. Meinrad Archabbey
St. Meinrad
IOWA
Laura Hampton
University of Iowa
Iowa City
Whitney Olthoff
Iowa State University
Stanhope
Jacque Roethler
University of Iowa
Iowa City
KANSAS
Gloria Creed-Dikeogu
Ottawa University
Ottawa
Matt Veatch
Kansas Historical Society
Topeka
MICHIGAN
Caitlin Brennecke
Romeo
Airen Campbell-Olszewski
Michigan Technological University
Houghton
Meghan Courtney
Detroit
Kim Schroeder
Detroit
Steve Wejroch
Archdiocese of Detroit
Dearborn
MINNESOTA
Anjanette Schussler
Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul
MISSOURI
Whitney Heinzmann
Kansas City
Susan Rehkopf
Episcopal Diocese of Missouri
St. Louis
Brandy Tunmire
University of Missouri
Columbia
NEBRASKA
Amy Schindler
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Omaha
OHIO
Samantha Ashby
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green
Annie Land
Bowling Green University
Perrysburg
Eira Tansey
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Lae’l H. Watkins
Kent State University
Kent
SOUTH DAKOTA
Tawa Ducheneaux
Oglala Lakota College
Kyle
WISCONSIN
Laura Farley
Wisconsin Historical Society and
Wisconsin Veterans Museum
Madison
OUTSIDE THE MAC REGION
Joy Glasser
Glen Allen, VA
John Schlener
Contentra Technologies
Macungie, PA
27
Other News— Paul Eisloeffel, Editor, Nebraska State Historical Society
New Tool Helps with
Video Digitization
Projects
New York University, working in collaboration with its academic partners
and technical advisors, is pleased to
announce the release of a new publication. Digitizing Video for Long-Term
Preservation: An RFP Guide and Template is intended to take an institution
step-by-step through the process of
drafting a request for proposals (RFP)
for the transfer of analog video to
digital carriers for preservation. This
template can be used by libraries,
archives, and other cultural heritage
institutions and submitted to qualified
transfer vendors. This new publication
is available for download at library.nyu.
edu/preservation/VARRFP.pdf.
With funding from the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation, this publication
was developed as part of the Video at
Risk (VAR) project (www.nyu.edu/
tisch/preservation/research/videorisk). The authors of this document set
out to create guidelines to identify the
key elements integral to the transfer of
video and audio signals from Standard
Definition VHS to a preservationquality digital file. Vendors provided
valuable comments and feedback on
the document, and the VAR project
partners (NYU; the University of
California, Berkeley; and Loyola
University, New Orleans) tested the
RFP document.
In addition to the RFP Guide, the
document also includes a number of
appendices that aim to assist those
unfamiliar with audiovisual analogto-digital transfer projects. The appendices include a sample of a completed
RFP by a fictitious institution, a suggested metadata model, a suggested
method of collecting transfer notes
from a vendor, a glossary of terms and
concepts, and a selected resource list.
28
In Memorium: Kenneth W. Duckett
(June 26, 1924–July 12, 2014)
By Patrick M. Quinn, University Archivist Emeritus, Northwestern University
Kenneth W. Duckett, an icon of the
archival profession and a stalwart
of the Midwest Archives Conference and the Society of American
Archivists, passed away on Saturday,
July 12, 2014, at the age of 90 in
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Ken Duckett was a giant among his
generation of archivists. His book,
Modern Manuscripts (1975), guided
manuscripts curators for many years.
Like his close friend and equally
prominent archivist, Maynard Brichford, founder of the University
of Illinois Archives, Duckett was
trained in history by the famed historian William B. Hesseltine at the
University of Wisconsin. And, like
Brichford, Duckett began his career
as an archivist at the Wisconsin
Historical Society. He grew up in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. Prior
to coming to Madison for graduate
work in history, Duckett had served
during World War II in the US Army
and had attended the University of
Denver, from which he graduated
after the war.
Duckett left Madison to assume the
position of manuscripts curator at
the Oregon Historical Society. The
next stop in his archival career was
the Ohio Historical Society, where he
was catapulted to the national stage
for his role in saving from destruction the letters of (US Senator and
later President) Warren G. Harding
to his lover, Carrie Phillips. As he
recounted in his book, The Shoe
Box Letters (2003), his role in saving
the historically significant Harding
letters cost him his job at the Ohio
Historical Society.
His long and productive archival
career continued at Southern Illinois
University (SIU) in Carbondale,
Illinois. During the years he spent as
curator of manuscripts in SIU’s Morris Library, 1965–1979, Duckett became one of the most distinguished
archivists in the United States. He
built the manuscripts repository at
SIU–Carbondale into one of the very
best of its kind in the United States,
a repository whose nationally prominent collections far exceeded what
historians and literary scholars would
expect to find at a small, previously
little-known university in the “Little
Egypt” region of far southern Illinois.
Duckett became a national leader in
the Society of American Archivists,
the Manuscripts Society, and the
Midwest Archives Conference. After
he retired from SIU–Carbondale,
he moved back to Oregon where he
concluded his archival career at the
University of Oregon.
But Ken Duckett was much more
than a distinguished archivist. His
quiet but engaging personality,
combined with his archival expertise
and accomplishments and his mentoring of the young archivists on his
staff and in the archival profession,
earned him the admiration and
respect of an entire generation of
archivists. I will dearly miss Ken.
I am very grateful to have known
him for more than four decades as
a colleague and as a close friend.
OTHER NEWS— Continued
Paul Eisloeffel, Editor
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your online catalogs. But can they simply click on a link to make reading
room paging requests, or order copies, or just ask a question?
Aeon facilitates special collections services, replacing manual
callslips and paper forms. New addons extend your outreach through
integration with OCLC CONTENTdm® for shopping cart services
and Compendium's Knowledge Tracker™ for optimum reference
request management.
Learn how Aeon can help you make
your outreach reach further.
Aeon. We play nice with others.
Visit www.atlas-sys.com to sign up for a demo.
29
MAC Officers
President (2013–2015)
Amy Cooper Cary
Head, Special Collections and
University Archives
Raynor Memorial Libraries
Marquette University
PO Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
Phone: 414-288-5901
[email protected]
Vice President (2014–2016)
David McCartney
University Archivist
Department of Special Collections and
University Archives
The University of Iowa Libraries
100 Main Library
Iowa City, IA 52242-1420
Phone: 319-335-5921
Fax: 319-335-5900
[email protected]
Treasurer (2014–2016)
Joel Thoreson
Archivist for Management, Reference
Services, and Technology
Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America Archives
321 Bonnie Lane
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
Phone: 847-690-9410
[email protected]
Secretary (2013–2015)
Michael Doylen
Archives Department Head
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
UWM Libraries/Archives Department
P.O. Box 604
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0604
Phone: 414-229-6980
[email protected]
Council
Mary Ellen Ducey (2013–2016)
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
29 Love Library
P.O. Box 884100
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-4100
Phone: 402-472-5076
[email protected]
Jennifer I. Johnson (2012–2015)
Associate Archivist
Corporate Archives/Corporate Affairs
Cargill, Inc.
15407 McGinty Road West, MS-70
Wayzata, MN 55391
Phone: 952-742-4034
Fax: 952-742-4700
[email protected]
Erik Moore (2013–2015)
Head, University Archives and
Co-Director, University Digital
Conservancy
30
University of Minnesota Archives
218 Elmer L. Andersen Library
222 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-625-5756
[email protected]
Jennie Thomas (2014–2017)
Head Archivist
Library and Archives
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
Museum
2809 Woodland Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115
Phone: 216.515.1942
Fax: 216.515.1956
[email protected]
Anne Thomason (2014–2017)
Archivist and Special Collections
Librarian
Donnelley and Lee Library
Lake Forest College
555 North Sheridan Road
Lake Forest, IL 60045
Phone: 847-735-5064
Fax: 847-735-6297
[email protected]
Ex Officio Council
Archival Issues Editorial Board
John Fleckner (2014–2016)
Senior Archivist
Archives Center
National Museum of American History
3010½ R Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202-633-3720 (O); 202-3381703 (H)
[email protected]
Development Coordinator
Portia Vescio (2013–2015)
Assistant Director
Michigan State University
University Archives and Historical
Collections
Conrad Hall
888 Wilson Road, Room 101
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-884-6442
[email protected]
Education Committee
Ellen Swain (2013–2015)
Archivist for Student Life and Culture
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Archives Research Center
1707 South Orchard Street
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: 217-333-7841
[email protected]
Tanya Zanish-Belcher (2013–2015)
Director, Special Collections and
Wake Forest University
Z. Smith Reynolds Library
PO Box 7777
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
Phone: 336-758-5755
[email protected]
MAC Newsletter Editor
Paul Eisloeffel (2014–2017)
Curator of Audiovisual Collections
Nebraska State Historical Society
1500 R Street
Box 82554
Lincoln, NE 68501-2554
Phone: 402-471-7837
Fax: 402-471-9822
[email protected]
Membership Committee
Alexis Braun Marks (2013–2015)
Eastern Michigan University
Bruce T. Halle Library
955 W. Circle Dr.
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Phone: 734-487-2594
[email protected]
Public Information Officer
Daria Labinsky (2014–2016)
Archivist
National Archives at St. Louis
1 Archives Drive
St. Louis, MO 63138
Phone: 314-801-0789
[email protected]
Vendor Coordinator
Miriam Kahn (2013–2015)
MBK Consulting
60 N. Harding Road
Columbus, OH 43209
Phone: 614-239-8977
[email protected]
Webmaster
Brad Houston
University Records Archivist
Archives Department, UWM Libraries
PO Box 604
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53201
Phone: 414-229-6979
[email protected]
Committee Chairs
Archie Motley Memorial Scholarship
for Minority Students Committee
Alison Stankrauff (2012–2014)
Archivist and Associate Librarian
Franklin D. Schurz Library
Indiana University South Bend
P.O. Box 7111
South Bend, IN 46634
Phone: 574-520-4392
[email protected]
Emeritus Scholarship for First-Time
MAC Meeting Attendees
Cheri Thies (2014–2016)
Collections Management Department
MAC Officers— Continued
Presidents’ Award
Dennis Meissner (2013–2015)
Head of Collections Management
345 West Kellogg Boulevard
St. Paul, MN 55102-1906
Phone: 651-259-3350
[email protected]
345 Kellogg Boulevard West
St. Paul, MN 55102
Phone: 651-259-3359
[email protected]
Louisa Bowen Memorial Graduate
Scholarship
Elizabeth Wilkinson (2014–2016)
Curator of Manuscripts
Special Collections Research Center
Georgetown University Library
37th and O Streets NW
Washington, DC 20057
Phone: 216-515-1942
Fax: 202-303-7501
[email protected]
Annual Meeting Local
Arrangements Committee
2015, Lexington, Kentucky
Heather Fox
Archivist for Metadata and Scholarly
Communications
University of Louisville
400 Ekstrom Library
Louisville, KY 40292
Phone: 502-852-1912
[email protected]
Nominating Committee
Daardi Sizemore (2014–2016)
Department Chair, Library Services
Librarian
Minnesota State University Mankato
PO Box 8419
Mankato, MN 56002-8419
Phone: 507-389-5949
Fax: 507-389-5155
[email protected]
Annual Meeting Program
Committee
2015, Lexington, Kentucky
Stephanie Bricking
Metadata Librarian
Public Library of Cincinnati and
Hamilton County
800 Vine Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone: 513-665-2891
Stephanie.Bricking@cincinnatilibrary
.org
Lisa Sjoberg
College Archivist
Concordia College
901 8th Street South
Moorhead, MN 56562
Phone: 218-299-3180
[email protected]
Deirdre Scaggs
Associate Dean
Special Collections
University of Kentucky
Margaret I. King Building
Lexington, KY 40506
Phone: 859-257-3653
[email protected]
MAC ADVERTISING INFORMATION
MAC offers advertisers easy and effective ways to market products, services, and announcements. These outlets include
its newsletter, journal, Annual Meeting program, and website. The newsletter, journal, and Annual Meeting program
reach more than 900 individual and institutional members in the Midwest and across the United States; more than
16,000 people visit the MAC website annually.
For more information concerning advertising with MAC, and exhibits and sponsorships during conferences, please contact MAC vendor coordinator Miriam Kahn, MBK Consulting, 60 N. Harding Road, Columbus, OH 43209; phone: 614-239-8977; e-mail: [email protected]; or visit MAC’s website: www
.midwestarchives.org.
MAC Advertising Packages
Publication and Frequency
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31
Midwest Archives Conference
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Membership fees: $45 Individual, $90 Institutional. The membership year runs from January to December. Make
checks payable to Midwest Archives Conference. Mail check and this form to Midwest Archives Conference,
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In our continued efforts to be more financially and environmentally sustainable, MAC is now asking members
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Preserving the Documents of the Past and Making Them Accessible

Transcription

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